Blog

24 June 2013

Bob Morris, VP Space Systems

O3b's First Launch is here.

June 24 10:53 CET: Launch – 10 Hours; Although life is beginning to populate the LEOP Control Centre, TAS-Italy personnel had a very early morning in Kourou. Starting at 01h30 Kourou local time, engineers begin to power up the satellites, open the monopropellant propulsion system latch valve and initiate battery management.

30 minutes ago, a bustle of activity begun for the rest of the launch team in readying the Soyuz 3 stages, the FREGAT upper stage and the ground support equipment. In an hour, cross checks will be completed across the enterprise to verify all systems are ready for launch to support a Launch minus 8h10m status Polling.